November 1, 1977 marked the opening day for Bowling Green’s very first temporary help service, Handy Girls. Sandy Lowe (now Boussard) decided that Bowling Green needed a business to supply clerical workers so lawyers and other businesses could replace their secretaries during vacations and maternity leaves. With an out of pocket investment of $250 the venture was launched from a back room of an attorney’s office.

As business began to grow, Handy Girls opened its first “real” office on East 10th Street in Bowling Green. Soon after, Sandy began receiving calls for industrial and labor positions requiring heavy lifting and more strenuous work environments. The result was more men working through the company, thus causing the name “Handy Girls” to become obsolete and creating an evolution to Handy Services, then Quality Temporaries and then eventually… Quality Personnel.

Bowling Green Office – circa 1995

During that same time the company moved to an upstairs office on the corner of 10th and State Street, and then to 432 East Main Street, Bowling Green in 1981 with three full-time staff members. In 1990, with the addition of more staff members, Quality Temporaries moved to Scottsville Rd., then Fairview Ave. and eventually to Campbell Lane where the corporate and Bowling Green Branch are currently located. Quality Personnel now has seven full-time staff members in the Bowling Green branch and seven full-time and one part-time corporate staff.

February 1, 1986 marked the opening of the first branch office in Glasgow, where I was hired as manager. I started out with a desk, phone, phone book yellow pages and a S electric II typewriter. Our application was the size of an index card using the front as the application and the back to list the locations where the applicant was assigned. Our temporary employees called in their hours on Friday and a hand cut check was written to them that day.

Glasgow Grand Opening – 1986

Newspaper coverage of Glasgow’s Grand Opening – circa 1986

Our Franklin branch opened in 1993, Russellville in 1994, Hopkinsville in 1995 and Columbia in 1997, where Monica Shuffett is still the original manager. We were the first temporary staffing company to open in each of these locations and for many years were the only service in that area.

We currently have 28 full-time and give part-time “AWESOME” staff members. The average length of service is 15 years+. Quality Personnel’s staff are proud to be part of the AtWork team and are truly thankful to have owners who genuinely care about them.

]]>At the risk of portraying myself as a complete and utterly shallow tool (yeah, that ship has probably already sailed… *sigh*), I’ll just go ahead and admit it, I’m prone to letting the most ridiculous, meaningless things ruin my day. Someone cuts me off in traffic, my computer doesn’t work right, someone in customer service is rude to me, a line is insanely longer than it should be (why are all these idiots standing in THIS line RIGHT NOW? “For the same reason you are, honey,” says my infinitely more patient wife), Jason’s Deli stops giving away two kids meals with every purchase on kid’s night (hey, when you have four kids you gotta cut corners where you can!), the Vols lose multiple winnable games to teams with markedly inferior talent (and yet, Butch Jones still has a job!?!?), some would-be writing critic criticizes me for writing ridiculously long, possibly even ‘run-on’ (gasp!) sentences, and a host of other admittedly negative but otherwise relatively meaningless events that should be mere blips on our radars of life yet all have the potential to get me down, to dampen my day, my week, my month (Heck, Tennessee football has been spoiling my Falls for several years now!).

In my meager defense, I feel guilty when I let this happen, but I know I’m not the only one. We all have things that bother us disproportionately to how it actually affects our lives. During these times, when maybe we have a hard time putting things in perspective, it helps to cultivate a spirit of that attribute we’re about to celebrate over turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce (better have real cranberries or it might ruin my… OK STOP IT!)… thankfulness! So today, for Thanksgiving month, I’d like to share a few ways we can all remind ourselves to maintain a spirit of thankfulness, no matter what life brings.

Count your blessings

It’s not just an old hymn, it’s a mentality that fosters an attitude of gratitude. No matter where we are in life or how badly things are going, we have some blessings to count – so count them! Dwell on those, and we’ll be less likely to sink into the mental mire of our present troubles. This goes for the petty stuff and the serious stuff too.

Focus on the positive

It may be a trite phrase, but try to be a ‘glass half full’ kind of person. If there are any positives to take from a given situation (of course, sometimes there won’t be), try to focus on those and minimize the negative. For example, for you Tennessee Vol fans, the next loss – and it’s coming soon – will be frustrating as usual but could also finally spark the coaching change that could get the team where it needs to be. Hey, whatever works!

Practice thankfulness, even if you’re not feeling it

If you’re in a restaurant and a server brings you something, say ‘thank you.’ If someone does something for you, thank them. Make it a regular practice to send warm thank you notes when appropriate. Let the people in your life, family, friends, co-workers, know how much and why you appreciate them. Even if you aren’t ‘feeling it’ at the time, deliberately and outwardly practicing thankfulness will provoke a positive reaction from those around you which will, in turn, build your own spirits.

It could always be worse

Got a flat tire? Your engine could have been shot. Got a cold? You could have the flu, or worse. Having a hard time walking? You could be unable to walk at all. You get the picture… regardless of what happens to us in life, someone will almost always have it worse, and our situation could always be worse than it is. Be THANKFUL it’s not.

Remember that God is good, that He loves you, and made you in His image

This life is just a blip, a tiny vapor in light of eternity. Knowing God through His son Jesus, knowing we can spend eternity with Him, quickly and definitively puts the temporary, temporal troubles of this world into stark perspective.

Granted, this piece focused on the ‘stupid stuff’ life brings to trip us up, but since we’re human we will all suffer real pain, real loss, and real challenges in this life, and these points apply to those as well, hard as they may be. Having a spirit of gratitude, of thankfulness, in our lives can go a long way toward helping us deal with the trials and tribulations that life constantly brings. So, while you gather ‘round that turkey table in a few days and eat more than you can handle, let’s remember to remember all the things we have to be thankful for!

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this blog are not necessarily those of Quality Personnel or all of its employees.

]]>http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/11/03/how-to-stay-thankful-when-the-stupid-stuff-gets-you-down/feed/1Four Reasons Why it’s Great to be a ‘Temp’http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/10/04/four-reasons-why-its-great-to-be-a-temp/
http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/10/04/four-reasons-why-its-great-to-be-a-temp/#respondWed, 04 Oct 2017 13:45:17 +0000http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/?p=1529We get it. When you were growing up and thinking about what you’d spend your working life pursuing, being a ‘temp’ probably wasn’t what you had in mind. Even the word itself can invoke negative thoughts – temporary, disposable, unappreciated, underpaid, you name it. And while staffing agencies (don’t call us a ‘temp’ agency!) have... Read more »

]]>We get it. When you were growing up and thinking about what you’d spend your working life pursuing, being a ‘temp’ probably wasn’t what you had in mind. Even the word itself can invoke negative thoughts – temporary, disposable, unappreciated, underpaid, you name it. And while staffing agencies (don’t call us a ‘temp’ agency!) have tried to move away from the term – helloooo ‘contract employee,’ ‘talent,’ ‘associate,’ or ANY other word, really – it’s still often what your average job seeker thinks they are to us – a ‘temp.’

We certainly SAY that’s not the case, that our employees are more than just ‘temps’ to us, and it’s true. But in reality some, though not all, of our jobs are just that – temporary. Although there are plenty of reasons for using a staffing agency, one of which is economies of scale in an increasingly difficult recruiting era, if there weren’t also something for employers to gain by using us to meet labor demand fluctuations without disrupting their ‘permanent’ workforce, some wouldn’t use us at all. In other words, no matter how we slice it, a decent percentage of the jobs we offer will always be considered ‘temp.’

Given this reality, why should you as a job seeker come to us when you supposedly have so many options at your disposal? What’s in it for you? After all, if you’re just starting your career and consequently are on the lower-skilled end of the spectrum, the restaurant down the road is probably offering wages really close to if not more than our clients are offering to start. Why should you trust us with one of the most important decisions in your life – your career?

In truth, there are several reasons, all of which you should seriously consider when embarking on your journey to workplace success.

Staffing agencies allow you to try different jobs and still keep your resume clean – If you were an employer, would you look highly on a candidate with seven different jobs in the past six months? Probably not, right? Even if the candidate told you they just wanted to try different types of careers and see what fit, you’d be skeptical of their ability to stick with yours for any amount of time. But if you’re working various assignments with Quality Personnel, all that work experience is under one employer. And believe us, we’ll give you a good reference… if you deserve it!

Staffing agencies will go to bat for you – Let’s say you do get hired somewhere on your own. Let’s say then that you end up losing that job because it just wasn’t a good fit, or the supervisor wasn’t willing to give you time to learn, or you had a genuine family emergency and had to miss too soon. Do you think the HR Manager or supervisor who released you is going to actively help you find something else? Nope, you’ll be out on your ear and it’ll be up to you to land on your feet.

It’s not that people don’t get released from assignments with Quality Personnel. We do what our clients tell us to do, after all. However, we also believe in giving folks more than one chance, especially if the reason they were released doesn’t have anything to do with whether they can perform well on another job. Through our agency, thousands of people have found success on their second and even their third job assignment with us. We’ll shoot for the perfect fit the first time, of course, but we’re also realistic enough to realize that sometimes that perfect fit may be somewhere else.

Staffing agencies are a bridge to ‘permanent’ employment – Of all the reasons, this is by far the finest. Of course, there are no ‘permanent’ jobs in this world. We’re all ‘temporary’ in that regard. But you know what I mean, a full time job with benefits and an invitation to the company off-site Christmas party. When you register with Quality, you’re making yourself a candidate for more jobs than you possibly could apply for by yourself. Oh sure, anyone can register at Indeed and submit their resume to hundreds of ‘jobs’ every day, but the truth is a tremendous percentage of available jobs aren’t listed under the hiring company – they’re listed under staffing agencies like us because hiring companies trust us to recruit, screen, and hire quality employees. Which would you rather be, one candidate among several hundred just praying for an interview, or on your way to actually work and get paid at a ‘temp’ job somewhere where you can prove you’re a match by, well, actually performing the job? It’s like a foot in the door, except your whole body is there!

Staffing agency jobs assignments often have more ‘upside’ – Sure, that restaurant job might pay a quarter more, but unless you’re looking for a long-term career in food service or restaurant management, that’s pretty much all you’re looking at. But when it comes to getting in on the ground floor of our area’s biggest and best employers, we’ve helped more people than we can count – supervisors who started with us in the stock room, plant managers who started with us in quality control, HR managers who started with a temporary clerical assignment – you name it.

Will you be our next success story?

Whether you’re between jobs or just starting your career, why not join the millions of other job seekers who have found out that when it comes to being a ‘temp,’ there’s a lot more than meets the eye!

]]>http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/10/04/four-reasons-why-its-great-to-be-a-temp/feed/0An Eight-Year-Old Begins To Understand Why Work is Importanthttp://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/09/01/an-eight-year-old-begins-to-understand-why-work-is-important/
http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/09/01/an-eight-year-old-begins-to-understand-why-work-is-important/#respondFri, 01 Sep 2017 15:20:18 +0000http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/?p=1524A few years ago, my then-eight year-old son and I were doing some landscaping in our yard one day when he paused, looked up at me through squinted, sweat-soaked eyes and said, “Dad, wouldn’t it be great if we never had to work?” To be honest, I can’t say I’ve never had the same thoughts,... Read more »

]]>A few years ago, my then-eight year-old son and I were doing some landscaping in our yard one day when he paused, looked up at me through squinted, sweat-soaked eyes and said, “Dad, wouldn’t it be great if we never had to work?”

To be honest, I can’t say I’ve never had the same thoughts, on occasion, especially on mornings when I’d rather sleep in an hour or two rather than get my rear-end out of bed and out the door (OK, that’s pretty much every morning, but I digress…). But I’ll readily admit that my son having those thoughts, even at eight, scared me a little. For just a fleeting second, an image of an obese, slightly balding, bearded twenty-something playing video games in my basement surrounded by pizza boxes and half-empty Mountain Dew cans floated through my head.

I needed to teach my kid about work, and, for the sake of my wife, my eventual happy retirement and any name-sake grandchildren we’d like to someday have, I needed to do it fast.

So I proceeded to wax eloquent about God working to create the universe and commanding us all to work, about the nobility of the whole setup (cue angelic, uplifting music). I went on and on, but then I had to sit down because my back was killing me from trying to move a gigantic rock into the proper spot. He sat down too. For an eight year-old, moving mulch and digging holes sounds fun in theory, and IS fun… for about 10 minutes.

After that it’s just, well… work!

Work.

Not always fun. Not always glamorous. Not always appreciated.

Not always an easy sell.

I could tell he wasn’t entirely convinced, so I took another approach. Nevermind that a significant percentage of people in this country actually seem to get away with not having to work, imagine if EVERYBODY stopped working, stopped producing, Atlas Shrugged style.

What would happen?

At this question, my brilliant economist-in-the-making son proceeded to say, “The stores would give all their stuff away to everybody, and we wouldn’t have to spend any money.”

Now granted, my son’s logic is about as sound as the logic of your typical liberal Big Government type these days, but that wasn’t the answer I was looking for. So, I proceeded to guide him along the path of a little thing we call logic:

If everybody stopped working, truly everyTHING would stop working. That means no electricity, no TV, no running water, nothing. Who would keep those things running if nobody worked? From toothbrushes and dental floss to stocking the grocery store shelves, who would make and deliver the things we use every day, if nobody got out of bed and went to work?

Sure, maybe you could just ‘work’ enough to build your own house (after all, we were doing our own landscaping that day), but you’d have to cut the trees yourself, using tools you made yourself, and glass, doorknobs, and other items you somehow fashioned, yourself.

The point is, people have always had to work to live, but HOW we live is determined by how smartly we do it. Economies progressed over the centuries because people learned to specialize. If one person became really skilled at being a tailor, he could sell his services to the person who was skilled at wagon-making, who could in turn sell his services to the farmer who grows food for everyone in his community. Work, specialization, is what makes the world turn. It is the engine that drives our standard of living.

Without it, life wouldn’t be worth living.

Let’s face it, ‘work’ is a dirty word these days, but it shouldn’t be. No matter what it is, from the janitor who is good at making sure places are clean enough so others can do the things THEY are good at, to the assembly person who completes a step in the process of making one of the countless items we use every single day, to the visionary who invents new miracles and makes millions doing so, to the artist who fashions something others are willing to pay to see, work is creating, work is magical, and yes, work is noble.

Before the fall of man, God still told Adam and Eve to do work. And when things are again restored, we’ll still do work, for all of eternity.

There’s a segment of society today that doesn’t believe that. They believe certain people, instead of working, should be given the products of other people’s labor.

Oh, there’s still work going on, of course, but there’s a word for essentially forcing some to work for others without recompense… We call it slavery.

As Mitt Romney famously noted in 2012, the percentage of those who take is beginning to overtake the percentage of those who produce. This is, quite simply, an unsustainable recipe for disaster.

I’m not sure if my eight year-old grasped all that or not, but being close to dinnertime I thought of one last point to make.

“You know, son, the Bible says that if you don’t work, you shouldn’t eat.”

Judging by how wide his eyes became at that point, I think he finally got it.

]]>http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/09/01/an-eight-year-old-begins-to-understand-why-work-is-important/feed/0The Potential Pitfalls of Using More Than One Staffing Agencyhttp://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/08/03/the-potential-pitfalls-of-using-more-than-one-staffing-agency/
http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/08/03/the-potential-pitfalls-of-using-more-than-one-staffing-agency/#respondThu, 03 Aug 2017 18:26:39 +0000http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/?p=1520When it comes to the nuts and bolts of a staffing office, our clients truly are in charge. However you want us to service your account, we’ll gladly comply and do the very best we can to exceed your expectations as a client. But there are several possible staffing arrangements that can affect the level... Read more »

]]>When it comes to the nuts and bolts of a staffing office, our clients truly are in charge. However you want us to service your account, we’ll gladly comply and do the very best we can to exceed your expectations as a client.

But there are several possible staffing arrangements that can affect the level of service you get, and it has nothing to do with how hard the staffing agency tries to service the account.

To get started, here are the three main staffing arrangements:

Exclusive – one staffing vendor, one client.

Main service provider and one or more backups – who are called only when the main service provider cannot fill every order.

Concurrent service providers – operating independently of one another servicing one account.

The first or even the second type pose no major potential problems, from what I can see. While we’d certainly love to be the exclusive provider in as many places as we can, we gladly serve as backups in others and even used that role as a way to prove our worth and work our way up.

The third option, however, has several potential pitfalls. Of course, the client is the boss and we’ll serve in whatever capacity we’re asked to serve and we’ll do the absolute best we can (hey, we’ve clawed our way to the top of the pack this way too!), but hiring managers need to be aware of the structural issues involved in this arrangement, issues that exist outside of our intention to do as good a job as possible in whatever capacity we are utilized.

While there are obviously other factors at play, such as company size, that would negate this, I would respectfully argue that it is better for a client to utilize one capable (KEY word being capable!) agency rather than multiple ones at the same time.

Here are five key reasons why:

It’s the same pool of people

While I would argue that our recruiting efforts reach far more people than the average agency, from a recruiting standpoint chances are most job seekers in a given area, if they’ve registered with one, have registered with almost every other staffing agency in town. So, if you utilize two or ten staffing agencies, you aren’t going to get two or ten times the qualified applicants. And even if you were, there are other problems that would come with that (see below).

Confusion reigns

Multiple staffing agencies in a business means a certain level of confusion, and multiple chances for errors. Instead of one rep, you have two or three who all mean well, but all will recruit and process their people differently, even if you have specified how you want your orientation to be. With one agency rep, you have consistency across the board. If the person is a temp, they deal with that rep, period. You don’t have to keep track of who is with who. If something was missed, you know who to blame and how to fix it. And if there is an invoicing error, there is one source to fix it and get it right consistently going forward.

Unequal treatment

Why? Because agencies are different! You may specify exactly what your entry level workers will make, but some agencies offer insurance, while others don’t. And the ones that do pay different amounts toward employee plans. Some agencies will charge their temps for drug tests and background checks, while others don’t. Some agencies have vacation and holiday pay, while others don’t. You get the picture.

And even more relevant to you – some agencies may even let that questionable drug test or horrible reference check pass because they want to place a temp and beat their competition, while others will do the right thing and disqualify that person for your account. And here’s the kicker – what’s to stop that same job seeker from walking across the street and registering with another agency and getting in your door? Nothing, that’s what! (More on this below.)

The thing is, when you utilize different agencies, you are unintentionally but still very much treating your entry-level employees differently, and as a result you AND your workers may end up on the raw end of the deal.

You actually get a lower quality employee

Sadly, it’s a common occurrence for our staffers to be on site at a client and run into a temp from another agency who, just before signing with them, blew it with us in one way or another, whether through a failed drug test, walking off a job, or even severely misbehaving at another client. If it’s something really bad we’ll tell the client, of course, but generally our hands are tied in these situations because we don’t want to appear vindictive, petty, or be a tattle-tale.

Additionally, competition is a good thing, but when it’s manufactured seemingly just for the purpose of creating competition it also, for better or for worse, creates an incentive to cut corners. It would never happen with our agency, of course, but this can often result in your getting a lower quality worker than you may otherwise get.

You actually may get fewer workers

It may be counter-intuitive, but put yourself in a staffing manager’s shoes. You have 10 job orders each at two different clients, one of which is exclusive and one is serviced by two or more different agencies. In a limited supply situation, which jobs would YOU fill first, the one that is counting on you or the one where the other agency may very well beat you to the punch as soon as you get your person processed and ready to go?

The Choice – Deal with a reputable agency (shameless plug coming … like Quality Personnel!! … end shameless plug) that has the locations, the resolve, and the resources to recruit the MOST people for your account, that understands your standards and is willing to bend over backwards to please you as a customer, and that has a solid community reputation and a proven track record of being good to their employees. It won’t always be smooth sailing, but it’ll sure be a lot better than the alternative!

]]>http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/08/03/the-potential-pitfalls-of-using-more-than-one-staffing-agency/feed/0Is There a Solution to America’s Opioid Crisis?http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/07/06/is-there-a-solution-to-americas-opioid-crisis/
http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/07/06/is-there-a-solution-to-americas-opioid-crisis/#respondThu, 06 Jul 2017 14:49:39 +0000http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/?p=1512As anyone in staffing, recruiting, or hiring knows all too well, one of the top recruiting obstacles isn’t so much generating interest in the position. No, that part is relatively easy, especially if you’re paying a competitive wage. Often the hardest part, sadly, is getting the candidates you’ve carefully recruited at great expense to pass... Read more »

]]>As anyone in staffing, recruiting, or hiring knows all too well, one of the top recruiting obstacles isn’t so much generating interest in the position. No, that part is relatively easy, especially if you’re paying a competitive wage. Often the hardest part, sadly, is getting the candidates you’ve carefully recruited at great expense to pass a simple drug test!

Despite society’s best efforts, including a decades-long “War on Drugs” that has seen prison populations skyrocket, the problem of drug use continues to grow and expand into segments of society that would have been unheard of even a decade or two ago.

And sadly, even “passing” a drug test doesn’t necessarily mean one is free of the effects of mind-altering drugs. Because by “drug use” we no longer just mean marijuana, cocaine, or even meth, the illegal “bad drugs.” These days, an exponentially growing number of drug addicts aren’t just running the “mean streets” of Philly or Compton, but rather are leading middle-class lives, working jobs, getting their kids to and from school, going to church, and going deeper and deeper into debt and criminality by doing whatever it takes to get that next high.

They, and millions of others like them, are addicted to prescription painkillers.

In an article entitled “American Carnage: The New Landscape of Opioid Addiction,” Weekly Standard Senior Editor Christopher Caldwell describes an unprecedented wave of opioid and heroin abuse that took two-thirds of the 52,000 Americans who died of drug overdoses in 2015 alone, more than those who died from car accidents and gun homicides combined, and 91 people per day. The problem is so rampant that one Brown University epidemiologist calculates that 2 percent of the population of Rhode Island, or 20,000 people, are opioid addicts.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson features Caldwell’s work in his series “Drugged: Inside Americas Opioid Crisis.” The first segment highlights a problem so vast that the number of doses in several states, including New Hampshire, is higher than the population as a whole.

Caldwell describes a time when opiates and opioids (a synthetic drug that mimics opium) were considered taboo, the realm of easing the suffering of cancer patients and those on death’s door. But twenty years ago, thanks to the rise of libertarian attitudes about drugs and drug company marketing, the landscape changed.

When Purdue Pharmaceuticals brought an extended release version of the opioid oxycodone, called OxyContin, to the market in 1996, it was supposed to lessen the risk of abuse thanks to the time-release nature of the formula. Except, addicts started dissolving, smashing, or chewing the pills to get the whole load at once. While three Purdue executives did plead guilty to felony misbranding and the company paid $600 million in fines, the problem still remains.

And then, Caldwell notes in his piece, “chronic pain” became a condition in and of itself, instead of just a symptom. It became a fifth vital sign after pulse, respiration, blood pressure, and temperature, and the American Pain Society, funded by the medical companies, actually advertised this fact to doctors.

Caldwell writes:

“Certain doctors, notoriously the anesthesiologist Russell Portenoy of the Beth Israel Medical Center, called for more aggressive pain treatment. We had to destigmatize these drugs, he later told the Wall Street Journal. A whole generation of doctors was schooled in the new understanding of pain. Patients threatened malpractice suits against doctors who did not prescribe pain medications liberally, and gave them bad marks on the patient satisfaction surveys that, in some insurance programs, determine doctor compensation. Today, more than a third of Americans are prescribed painkillers every year.”

Ironically, as opioids became more in demand and taboos lifted, heroin, once a drug of the streets pushed and used by gangsters and drug addicts, became a competitively priced substitute. And by heroin, Caldwell means fentanyl, a synthetic opioid invented in 1959 for end-of-life care that’s fifty times as strong as street heroin.

So, as the AMA increasingly viewed and taught pain as a disease to be treated, Big Pharma cashed in with sky-high profits, and millions of people became drug addicts.

Of course, the last thing any of us who hire for a living want to do is put someone under the influence of ANY drug, illegal or legal, on a potentially-dangerous job site. And for our people who DO get hurt on the job, the last thing we want is for some drug-happy doctor to hook them on narcotics for a wrist sprain!

But what’s the long-term answer? Because the trend certainly seems grim.

Step one, obviously, would be to do what it takes to prevent new people from getting hooked on these drugs to begin with.

That means a major paradigm shift BACK to viewing pain as a symptom rather than a disease itself, and educating doctors AND patients on the fact that non-narcotic pain relievers not only can be just as effective as narcotics, but they don’t come with the risk of addiction. Even if the pain is slightly higher, is the risk of eventually losing everything really worth it?

At the end of his piece, Caldwell acknowledges the effectiveness of societal pressure, mentioning Alcoholics Anonymous as an example. Alcoholics aren’t coddled there, and the “enemy” isn’t sugar-coated.

It’s high time society treated drug addiction similarly, starting with a Big Pharma-funded superfund (like the tobacco superfund) to help addicts quit their addictions cold-turkey instead of trying to wean themselves off with other drugs.

It’s time to treat opioid addition like the public menace that it is, before it’s too late.

]]>http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/07/06/is-there-a-solution-to-americas-opioid-crisis/feed/0Hilarious Drug Test Stories From The Staffing Worldhttp://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/06/02/hilarious-drug-test-stories-from-the-staffing-world/
http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/06/02/hilarious-drug-test-stories-from-the-staffing-world/#respondFri, 02 Jun 2017 14:15:15 +0000http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/?p=1505As much as the law, technology, and even the workforce itself may change a staffer’s job over time, one thing will probably always remain the same – that ever-ubiquitous, empty-your-pockets, pee-in-a-cup, gloves-on, ‘hold your nose and pray there’s a white line because you really really neeeed this person to go to work tomorrow’ DRUG TEST!... Read more »

]]>As much as the law, technology, and even the workforce itself may change a staffer’s job over time, one thing will probably always remain the same – that ever-ubiquitous, empty-your-pockets, pee-in-a-cup, gloves-on, ‘hold your nose and pray there’s a white line because you really really neeeed this person to go to work tomorrow’ DRUG TEST!

And while drug testing new hires may be the least favorite part of our job if we’re on the front-lines of staffing, it’s also the part that provides some of the most hilarious stories, stories that, over time, are oft-repeated and, eventually, become the stuff of legend. These are the stories we tell our new hires on their first day, the ones we laugh about with our colleagues over lunch. They are the stories we’ll remember our entire working life, regardless of where we are or what we are doing.

Because let’s face it, when it comes to whether or not someone is going to pass their drug test, some people will say anything, and it’s often pretty freaking hilarious!

Here is a sampling of a few of our funniest real life drug test stories. Enjoy!

From Austyn – Bowling Green, KY:

After about three weeks of work I was still learning the ropes. One day a migrant worker (legal) comes into our office seeking employment with his friend. It is quickly understood that this man does not speak English as his friend takes up the role as his translator. We explain to the translator that he is to go use the bathroom in the cup. ‘Si,’ he says when asked if he understood, and he is off to the restroom. Ten minutes pass… Twenty minutes pass… And finally, our friend comes out with a look of frustration explaining to his friend, who then explains to us, that he is sorry that the contents of the jar is all he could muster to get out.

Upon looking at the test, we quickly noticed there must have been some miscommunication between us…

This is because this man had given us, not urine, but a stool sample!

That’s right! He took a deuce in the cup!

Although we all remained as calm as we could to save the man some embarrassment, we completely lost it after he left the office. This is my third week, mind you. I was thinking ‘Lord, what have I gotten myself into!.’

Of course, I have photo evidence but I won’t bother to attach it.

(Editor’s note: That’s probably a good thing, Austyn!)

From Mirta – Rogersville, TN

Since we staff this particular client remotely, we have to send our people to an off-site testing facility. One day, an individual called the office upset because the site had deemed his sample ‘too cold’ to be used. His excuse? He has to use ‘a catheter’ to provide the urine sample! He hung up when we explain to him that, catheter or not, his sample should have still been warm.

From Susan – Abingdon, VA

I had a younger guy come in with his mother. He finished all his paperwork and we headed to the restroom to drug test. I gave him the cup and told him all the rules. While I was waiting for him to finish, I noticed a small pocket sized hand sanitizer on the sink. I thought hmm, the cleaning guy has put hand sanitizer out.

The guy was taking a little while (I figured he was young and nervous, maybe 18). As I stood waiting my eyes drifted back to the hand sanitizer. I thought, that’s strange, I have never seen yellow hand sanitizer before. I picked up the bottle and noticed that it was in fact NOT hand sanitizer, but someone’s sample they had left for us.

About that time, the guy came out and I just sat it back on the counter with the intentions of throwing it out when we were done. I am testing the sample and the poor little fellow picks up the hand sanitizer, squirts it on his hands, and starts rubbing. It is running down his arms and obviously not drying like hand sanitizer normally does. As he just keeps rubbing I am thinking, ‘Oh My Gosh, should I tell this kid he just washed his hands in pee?’

Then I look at his drug test and he has failed for THC. I almost thought I owed him a pass or something! I told him he had failed and he admitted he had smoked. He asked if I would please not tell his Mom. I told him sure, I would not tell her. I figured I owed him that much but I just could not bring myself to tell him about the hand sanitizer.

And yeah, for obvious reasons I also thought I would pass on shaking hands!

From Shirley – Bowling Green, KY

I have a few that come to mind:

Told a lady that her drug test did not have a temperature, so she stuck her finger in it to see!

Person tested positive for THC, Methamphetamine, and Amphetamine. Looked at us with a straight face and said Im taking Sudafed.

A guy was going full time at one of our companies. The HR lady called me and said he tried to sneak someone elses urine in his boot. I called him and he said, Well I didnt think I could pass the test.

From Chris – Knoxville, TN

Here are a few for you:

A lady told me that she tested positive for THC because she had big mammary glands & that her doctor told her that the THC would stay in them for a while.

After failing her drug test for a job she was supposed to start today, one lady said, “I never should have smoked that joint this morning!”

I had a guy who failed for cocaine. His excuse was that he caught his daughter with it and when he tried to wrestle it from her the bag exploded in his face.

A lady once told me she was going to test positive because she had gonorrhea.

]]>http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/06/02/hilarious-drug-test-stories-from-the-staffing-world/feed/0Employee Satisfaction: More Than Meets The Eye!http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/05/03/employee-satisfaction-more-than-meets-the-eye/
http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/05/03/employee-satisfaction-more-than-meets-the-eye/#respondWed, 03 May 2017 19:21:03 +0000http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/?p=1497By: Brandon Luttrell – Business Development Manager It’s no secret that every company wants their employees to be fully engaged and productive at work. After all, employee productivity and engagement is the foundation upon which companies make money, expand and succeed. Without employee engagement, productivity would not take place, and without productivity, bankruptcy is only... Read more »

It’s no secret that every company wants their employees to be fully engaged and productive at work. After all, employee productivity and engagement is the foundation upon which companies make money, expand and succeed. Without employee engagement, productivity would not take place, and without productivity, bankruptcy is only a step around the corner.

Of course, the question then arises, “How does a company develop more productive and engaged employees?” The answer, of course, is to increase employee satisfaction. While the answer may be simple, implementing it is easier said than done. However, if a company wants greater success, it must be willing to “roll with the changes.”

Henry Ford said it best, “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”

Now, employee satisfaction is much more than a high-level title or sizable income. In fact, the current research on the true meaning of “employee satisfaction” reveals a much more complex picture.

Here are the Leading Contributors to Employee Satisfaction, according to The Balance (Numbers Don’t Lie!):

Respectful treatment of employees (67%)

Compensation and pay (63%)

Overall benefits (60%)

Job security (has gone from first to fourth as the economy has improved) (58%)

Trust between employees and senior management (55%)

Opportunities to use skills and abilities in one’s work (55%)

Financial stability of the organization (53%)

The employee’s relationship with his or her immediate supervisor (53%)

Feeling physically safe in one’s work environment (50%)

Immediate supervisor’s respect for one’s ideas (49%)

While pay is certainly a high-ranked contributor to employee satisfaction, it’s not number one or by far the only solution on the list.

This is a call to action!

If a company is struggling to engage employees and create a more productive work environment, these other contributors to employee satisfaction may be a solution to solving those issues. In turn, greater wealth, success and health of a company and its employees will follow.

]]>http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/05/03/employee-satisfaction-more-than-meets-the-eye/feed/0Five ‘No Excuse’ Ways Applicants Eliminate Themselves, And How To Fix Themhttp://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/04/05/five-no-excuse-ways-applicants-eliminate-themselves-and-how-to-fix-them/
http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/04/05/five-no-excuse-ways-applicants-eliminate-themselves-and-how-to-fix-them/#respondWed, 05 Apr 2017 12:50:01 +0000http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/?p=1494If you’re stuck in the unenviable position of looking for work, taking steps to make yourself a more well-rounded, qualified, marketable candidate is always a good move. Typically, advice along those lines involves going back to school, learning a trade, or even entering an entirely new career at the bottom of the ladder. All good... Read more »

]]>If you’re stuck in the unenviable position of looking for work, taking steps to make yourself a more well-rounded, qualified, marketable candidate is always a good move.

Typically, advice along those lines involves going back to school, learning a trade, or even entering an entirely new career at the bottom of the ladder. All good advice, depending on one’s situation.

But what if you could make yourself a more viable candidate without doing any of those things? What if you could simply pay attention to a few small details and, as a result, differentiate yourself from a significant percentage of the competition, and maybe land that interview while others don’t even make it through the door?

That’s exactly what Technical Recruiter Paul Farrior thinks, and he’s got the experience to back up his claims. Paul got his start with AtWork Professional (our direct hire division) three years ago after college, and since then he’s placed hundreds of candidates all along the skill spectrum, from entry level machine operators to machine maintenance to IT, engineering, HR, and marketing professionals.

Paul hasn’t quite seen it all yet, but what he has seen has him constantly shaking his head at the ways job candidates shoot themselves in the foot before they even set foot inside his office for an interview.

Here are just a few:

Outdated resume / profile work history

Here’s what happens. You go on Indeed.com three years ago and put in a profile with your work history. Maybe you land a job in a few months, work it a couple of years, and find yourself in need of employment again. So you start applying for jobs using that handy-dandy Indeed profile, not considering that potential employers might be interested in your most recent employment experience.

According to Paul, this happens all too often! In fact, it’s not uncommon for him to ask an applicant over the phone about what he thinks is an applicant’s latest position only to get “that was three jobs ago” as a response.

It’s somewhat understandable to some degree. In a panic, it’s easy to get click happy and just apply for as many jobs as you can. Problem is, when your online resumes aren’t updated (whether it’s your pdf resume or on a job board), it reflects poorly on key factors employers want to see, such as conscientiousness, attention to detail, truthfulness, and even work ethic. If you aren’t willing to do some of your own legwork, why should we?

Inaccurate contact information

According to Paul, upwards of 40 percent of phone calls he makes during any given workday are to numbers that, for whatever reason, are no longer in service. Granted, this problem seems to get worse the further down the pay scale you go, but people need entry-level jobs too, and not having accurate phone information, or not being able to maintain a phone number for longer than two weeks, is a colossal example of shooting oneself in the foot.

We may have had the perfect job for you, but yeah, you’ll never know it because we tried to call you and couldn’t reach you.

No voicemail set up

Of those with working numbers, at least 20 percent don’t even have their voicemail set up correctly, or we’ll call and get that dreaded “this voicemail is full” message. “I can call and call and call,” Paul says, “but typically people won’t answer unless they recognize the number. Problem is, if I can’t leave a voicemail, how will they know its me?”

You won’t, and sadly you won’t know anything about that great job Paul had for you either.

Answering the phone rudely or unprofessionally

We get it, it’s your personal phone and you have the right to answer it with “What?” or “Who dis?” or even a “Buzz off” if you want, but don’t be surprised when we move on to the next, less rude, candidate. After all, if you’re rude, short, or unprofessional to people you don’t even know, how will you be on the job site?

Paul especially loves it when people answer rudely, then when they realize it’s him their “tone instantly changes.” Interestingly though, that first impression never leaves his mind.

One word answers to questions

Paul: “Are you still looking for work?”

Applicant: “Yes.” (long pause)

OK, sure that was technically a yes or no question, but how about a LITTLE help here?

Here’s another one:

Paul: “What type of work are you hoping to find?”

Applicant: “Anything.” (another long pause)

You’d be amazed at how many applicants manage to answer open-ended questions with terse, even one-word responses. Paul knows the art of the long awkward silence and isn’t afraid to use it, but when he has to, trust me, he isn’t thinking favorable thoughts about you.

Granted, it takes a little bit of effort, but regardless of work history, background, or even individual smarts, anyone, and I do mean anyone, can correct these seemingly obvious things to differentiate themselves from a higher percentage of fellow job seekers than, sadly, should be the case.

]]>http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/04/05/five-no-excuse-ways-applicants-eliminate-themselves-and-how-to-fix-them/feed/0Society’s ‘Unemployable’ Problem, And What Can Be Done About Ithttp://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/03/02/societys-unemployable-problem-and-what-can-be-done-about-it/
http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/2017/03/02/societys-unemployable-problem-and-what-can-be-done-about-it/#respondThu, 02 Mar 2017 19:26:52 +0000http://www.qualitypersonnel.com/?p=1425In his January farewell address, I couldn’t help but notice President Obama crowing about an unemployment rate supposedly sitting at a 10-year low. That’s because, as Sean Hannity aptly pointed out on his show immediately following the address, upwards of 95 million Americans have dropped out of the labor force. In other words, the unemployment... Read more »

]]>In his January farewell address, I couldn’t help but notice President Obama crowing about an unemployment rate supposedly sitting at a 10-year low. That’s because, as Sean Hannity aptly pointed out on his show immediately following the address, upwards of 95 million Americans have dropped out of the labor force. In other words, the unemployment numbers Obama and others like to tout to show the efficacy of their economic policies don’t actually reflect reality.

And yet, hiring companies often can’t find the talent they need to fill their open slots.

But why?

There are many factors at play here, of course, from all-too-easy government assistance to a growing skills gap between willing workers and desperate employers.

But perhaps the most tragic yet impactful reason is an inconvenient truth that plagues us all, especially those of us who recruit and hire for a living. The fact of the matter is, whether through their own bad decisions, horrible life circumstances, or a little bit of both, a significant percentage of our population have rendered themselves, by today’s almost-universally-held standards of employment, almost completely unemployable.

And sadly, many staffing agencies are stuck in a position where, though they may often like to help people who seem to genuinely want a second chance, a significant chunk of their clients simply don’t want them.

Which brings up the question, should anyone, truly, be “unemployable?” What are the real ramifications of that term? After all, everyone’s gotta eat, right? Suppose “unemployable” means nobody, anywhere, will hire them, not even to clean toilets or shovel cow manure.

I’m not talking about lazy people who genuinely don’t want to work. Sure, there are plenty of those, and to be completely honest, I don’t care what happens to them. I’m talking about willing people who can’t find a job because of an addictive habit or a mistake in their past.

Do you really need to have a clean background to pack widgets into boxes on an assembly line? And to get even more controversial, do you need to be able to pass a drug test to sweep a sidewalk (assuming they aren’t stoned on the job, of course, but plenty of those can still ‘pass’ a drug test)?

In many cases, I do recognize that the answer is yes! There are doubtless plenty of jobs out there that do require these things, but I’d be willing to bet there are plenty of employers to whom these are a preference, not a necessity. They truly don’t mean for fellow humans to be unemployable – they just want them to be employed … somewhere else.

The problem, of course, occurs when almost everybody feels this way.

Ergo, 95 million people who have given up on looking for a job, not counted in the unemployment ranks but still putting food in their mouths, every single day.

Ergo, “unemployable.”

So, since in modern society unemployable doesn’t mean being allowed to starve, where does that food come from? The answer, as we all know, is welfare, charity, friends, family, and yes, even theft or other crimes. In other words, a way that doesn’t involve them earning their bread the Biblical way, through the sweat of their own brow.

And when they aren’t earning money, they aren’t spending it either, thus completing the sad circle of becoming a complete drain on society.

We recently had a discussion between members of our leadership team about this problem, because it’s something we experience every day. Please remember that in this case we’re talking about people who have made mistakes but genuinely want to turn their lives around, and yet have been unjustly added to the list of the “unemployable” by society.

How can we help?

Sure, we should, we can, and we do educate our clients on the law and current EEOC regulations, but they don’t have to do business with us. There are a hundred other staffing agencies willing and eager to accommodate them – if they can find the people.

And it’s a gray area. According to the EEOC, “There is no Federal law that clearly prohibits an employer from asking about arrest and conviction records.” BUT, and it’s a big one, “However, using such records as an absolute measure to prevent an individual from being hired could limit the employment opportunities of some protected groups, and thus cannot be used in this way.”

On one hand, the EEOC could potentially sue if employers screen applicants on the basis of a felony conviction, especially if they see a disparate impact in the employer’s hiring practices, but on the other hand hiring someone with a felony conviction could result in a lawsuit from any victims of the employee’s misconduct. It’s truly a no-win situation, but for some business often it’s easier, and seemingly safer, to say no to all felons rather than determine which offenses directly relate to the job at hand.

Drug testing is another tough issue. We don’t want anyone to have a drug-related accident on the job, but anyone with a week’s experience in the staffing world knows that if we could relax the drug test restrictions somewhat we’d fill a LOT more of our orders. Whether or not we SHOULD depends on the client and the job itself, of course.

But even without relaxing drug restrictions, perhaps there are ways staffing agencies can help with drug addiction, somehow help them get clean, then give them another shot in 30 days.

As for felons who just want a second chance, maybe it’s time for a paradigm shift in the employment world. I’d love to see more business follow in the footsteps of Edwins, a high-end French restaurant in Cleveland that made the news for their practice of hiring and training ex-cons.ess people make the leap from “unemployable” to productive members of society.

That’s the kind of outside-the-box thinking that changes lives instead of fostering dependency.